


Demon's Gambit

by Whedonista93



Series: The Urban Legend Job [4]
Category: Leverage, Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 04:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4862576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whedonista93/pseuds/Whedonista93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sterling/Crowley and The Queen's Gambit Job</p>
            </blockquote>





	Demon's Gambit

**Author's Note:**

> This fic falls far more firmly into my Urban Legend verse than my previous Crowley as Sterling fics. The others can stand independently, but this specific one is more of a direct extension off the last chapter of the Urban Legend job and briefly includes my original character. It's also written in a slightly different style, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
> 
> And Riley, my dear, this is, as always, for you. Though I certainly can't say I blame you if you've finally abandoned me with as long as I made you wait this time around.

“So what’s your opinion of Olivia’s boyfriend?” Nate asked conversationally after everyone was relaxing around the fireplace after dinner, wrapping paper strewn everywhere.

Jim sneered in response.

Nate chuckled.

“The chess match.” Parker exclaimed suddenly.

“Hmm?” Jim hummed without looking up from the book he’s flipping through.

Parker waved her hands in frustration and looked desperately at Eliot, unable to form the question she was trying to ask.

“Who was it?” Eliot offered. Parker nodded and smile gratefully before looking expectantly at Jim.

When he didn’t seem to be paying attention, Jamie threw a wad of wrapping paper at the side of his head.

“What?” Jim snapped.

Jamie rolled her eyes at him. “They asked you a question.”

Jim sighed and shifted his gaze to Eliot, “What?”

“The chess match. Who was it?” Eliot asked again.

“What in the bloody hell are you on about?”

“Don’t be a jackass.” Jamie chastised, “Who had the reins? Crowley or Sterling?”

Jim visibly calmed before he answered quietly. “Sterling. Entirely.”

“How?” Jamie demanded.

Jim shrugged. “We found early on in our… arrangement that Sterling could wrest control over Crowley when it was something felt strongly about.”

“Such as?”

Jim seemed hesitant to answer and refused to make eye contact with anyone as he did, “The first time Sterling managed to take control was when Crowley was taunting Nate about Sam in the rehab facility.”

Aside from the crackling of the fire, silence filled the room.

Finally, Nate spoke, “That was real?”

Jim pursed his lips and nodded.

Sophie reached up for Nate’s shoulder a squeezed it in reassurance.

Nate took a deep breath and waved his hand toward Jim absently. “Go on.”

Jim shrugged uncomfortably, “Everyone has weak spots, and everyone has strong spots. Somethings mean enough to overcome anything. Things like our children.”

* * *

_Crowley sat back idly and let Sterling do the tedious work of sifting through Interpol e-mails. He realized later that his idleness is what cost him his control, but before he knew what was happening, Sterling had full control of their shared body and Crowley was all but locked away in a vacant corner._

_He only barely had time to register the e-mail on the screen, “_ I’m not safe here anymore. – O _” before he found himself in an old Irish bar with Interpol lackies flanking the exits. He caught the whiskey tumbler as it slid across the counter, “Hello, Nate.”_

_A chess board. Sterling asking for a favor – talk about terrorists and Kazhistan and nuclear bombs and Crowley isn’t so put out with having lost control that he isn’t impressed with the con. Crowley is even more impressed when Sterling manages to leave the game a stalemate._

_*_

_“We have a problem.” Sterling intoned. “See those men walking back there?”_

_“The ones walking by Livingston’s daughter?” Nate asked, turning slightly to look._

_“Stepdaughter.” Sterling couldn’t stop himself from snapping._

_*_

_Crowley noticed rather quickly that Sterling almost made a game of pushing his boundaries with Nate’s team. He would invade their space at every opportunity and snark where a wiser man would hold his tongue._

_Sterling listened to Nate tell his hacker to do the impossible with barely a ‘Good Luck.’ and walk away._

_“Some things never change.” Sterling smirked, only to be met with glares. “Time for me to go?”_

_The little blonde thief looked at him incredulously and walked her fingers off as a child might, but he took the hint and for once used his better judgement to walk away._

_Sterling particularly seemed to enjoy tormenting Nate’s hitter._

_“I think this will give us the opportunity to spend some real quality time together, Spencer.”_

_Sterling took full advantage of Crowley’s capabilities to listen in on Nate’s warning not to kill him and barely suppressed a  chuckle at Eliot’s indignant growl of, “I can’t promise that!”_

_And Crowley is downright giddy at the sight of the hitter batting at his own face before taking a swing and going down like a bloody sack of potatoes to Sterling’s gloating, “Yes. I put something in your coffee.”_

_*_

_Sterling hovered, invisible, over as much of Olivia and Nate’s chess match as he could._

_“No, not Robert.” Olivia was quick to correct Nate’s assuming glance. “My_ real _dad. The only thing Robert ever taught me how to do was… well, I guess he did teach me how to play chess.”_

_“Oh.” Nate responded, and Sterling could see him calculating._

_“But…” Olivia continued, “It was my real dad who taught me how to win.”_

_And then she began to tap an errant piece in an achingly familiar gesture, and his heart swelled with pride. Then Nate sacrificed his queen, and Sterling couldn’t help but question whether he was the one being played._

_*_

_Sterling sets off the alarm without a hint of remorse and is waiting in the storage closet like the smug bastard he is when the guards deposit Olivia into the storage closet._

_Crowley can feel Sterling’s shock when Nate gives chase – direct confrontation wasn’t the con-man’s standard course of action, but Crowley supposed Sterling was an exception._

_Crowley was crowded out for the beginning of the conversation, but he heard enough to wonder how much of himself his meat suit had managed to hide._

_“No, no, Jim.” Nate insisted. “No. I’m talking about before that… when we were friends. You had a wife and a daughter, and I didn’t know. Why?”_

_“’Cause it was my fault the left. And I knew it.” he answered._

_Sterling could sense Sam hanging in the air between them, unspoken, as Olivia questioned what he wouldn’t do for his kid._

_Nate turned to Sterling, “Why’d you come to me?”_

_And Sterling answered honestly. “’Cause you’re the best thief I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t risk anything less.”_

_Then Nate gave Sterling a name and walked away and Crowley had to admit he liked the man’s style._

_The moment Nate walked away and turned back to Olivia and Sterling saw her there, safe, he lost control. Crowley maintained the façade until Olivia was safely ensconced in their apartment back in the states._

_“That was bloody stupid.” Crowley berated Sterling, who thoroughly ignored him. “Despite the fact that I’m rather impressed, if you ever pull the shit again, I will kill you. I can find a meat suit anywhere, you prat.”_

* * *

“That was a week, at least.” Eliot calculated in disbelief.

“I’ve never heard of a human holding control over a demon that long.” Jamie exclaimed, near incredulous.

Jim shrugged, “I think Crowley was too fascinated with the whole ordeal to fight _that_ hard for control.”

“Fascinated by what?” Jamie questioned laughingly.

Jim shrugged again, almost habitually, “Gavin was a right wanker. Never got on with a son. Maybe curious about a daughter and a father’s love and all that.”

“Ever wonder if Gavin and Crowley didn’t get along ‘cause Crowley was shit for a father and wasn’t around for that much of childhood?” Dean grumbled from his recliner.

“Pardon?” Jim looked to the eldest Winchester.

Sam answered for him, “Well, he came along _after_ you made your crossroads deal, right? So you had, what? Nine years, max, with him before you were actually dead and a demon yourself. And I mean, come on… ten years for a few inches? Was that really worth your son, man?”

“Woah! Halt. Stop. I forbid this ‘what if’, depressing bullshit.” Jamie declared. “It’s Christmas and we’re all happy, damn it. So knock it off.”

Sam put his hands up in surrender.

Jim sunk into his chair and raised his drink in salute, “No harm, no foul. Cheers.”

A tense silence began to descend, but before it could really fall, Parker’s voice interrupted, “A few inches of what?”

And with that, the Winchester trio, along with Bobby, burst into gales of laughter as Jim turned red to the tips of his ears and the Leverage crew looked on in confusion and awaited fulfillment of promises of explanation gasped between laughs.


End file.
